Core surf fans tell the World Surf League what they think!
This whole Facebook x World Surf League collaboration has been very interesting to observe. The rollout, the subsequent problems and reaction, the rollback. And it appears a war is brewing between the League and its most passionate fans. A war that could change the facebook of professional surfing forever. Or alter absolutely nothing whatsoever.
Let us review. The WSL signed an exclusive 2-year, 15 million dollar agreement with Facebook at the end of January making it the only place to watch professional surfing. There was some, say, mixed messages from the League claiming this year would be a soft launch and professional surf contests would be on both Facebook and the traditional app/website but things changed at J-Bay and Facebook was the only place to watch all glitchy and odd.
Surf fans revolted, the League quickly tossed the contest back onto the app/website and yesterday released this statement about things moving forward:
Thank you again for your patience and support as we continue to work through the Facebook transition and challenges that Facebook has been having on some devices.
They are working hard to resolve the issues and we are both committed to delivering the best possible experience going forward. We’d like to remind everyone that we have temporarily re-instituted the broadcast across our WSL channels for the remainder of J-Bay and for the US Open.
Now you are able to watch our live broadcast on the WSL website, the WSL app, and of course on Facebook. Again we apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced last week.
A very nice kick under the bus with the “challenges that Facebook has been having…” line and semi-nice apology. Did the surf fans take it? Let’s read some comments!
Just keep in mind that not everyone who wants to watch is on Facebook. I’ve never signed up nor will I ever sign up to Facebook. I will actually stop watching surfing before I will sign up to Facebook. Facebook is not your answer to grow viewership.
It turns out Facebook may be an extension of a Department of Defence program called Lifelog which had the objective of collecting an entire persons life into a database, only thing is it’s illegal to collect this data unless it’s voluntarily given up by unwitting individuals.
the actions of the WSL over the next few months will show us where their loyalties lie ,,,,with a multi national that knows nothing of surfing ,,,or with your loyal fans who do not want facebook . WSL , prepare to be judged
If you truly want to fix this dump facebook. It was a bad decision. Stop the bleeding already.
Lemoore was not a popular choice yet you continue to blindly press on with another event despite the tsunami of negative feedback from the last one, Nobody I have met is interested in watching another one. It’s the same with Facebook. No real surfer I know gives two hoots for Facebook. Even those individuals who still spend hours addicted to it’s pathetic memes and clickbait stories don’t have a lot of good to say about it!
Only a dog returns to its own vomit!
Etc. Etc. Etc.
And here is my honest question, do you think this rage will actually affect viewership of professional surf contests or do you think it is all just lots of hot air?
David Lee Scales and I discussed this yesterday on the podcast (listen here!) and came down on very different sides. He feels that core surf fans are raging but will come straight back to Facebook once their tears have dried. I believe that core surf fans are genuinely incensed and will refuse to return for a multitude of reasons maybe chief amongst them is Facebook’s historic unpopularity (fake news, selling data, etc.).
Who is right? Do you have a gauge on people spouting off versus people actually changing their habits?
If core surf fans leave the broadcast will the World Surf League continue to recruit rabid new surf fans in India?
Or maybe do you think the World Surf League reads their own comment section and will follow Ivan’s advice?
The sad truth is if the audience numbers aren’t there on Facebook, the advertising dollars will stop and everything comes to a screeching halt. The audience (read extremely loyal) that the WSL built on their website and mobile app with the live stream was a HUGE asset, it’s not easy to do, they could have easily charged a premium for viewing without commercials (I personally would have gladly paid) and continued to offer free viewing with commercials. From there they could have expanded their content and created a very valuable lifestyle network. Someone needs to come in and right this ship.
Well?
I’ve exclusively moved over to the youtube channel for the heat recaps. I’m over listening to these commentators try and provide some analysis and I’m over waiting for surfers to catch waves. Each heats only has about 2-3 minutes of surfing, I don’t have the time to sit around waiting 10 minutes for 30 seconds of action. 10 minute heat recaps are perfect IMO.
All dog vomit leads to Lemoore. It’s that simple.
I’m a core surfy.
Chas you don’t even watch the comps so dunno what your complaining about.
99% of core surfers will continue to watch it…
As long as they keep putting the heat highlights up on youtube I don’t care. I don’t watch any comps live, just catch up on the heat highlights I want to see.
The reality is… time will tell. Surfing has never been able to learn from it’s own mistakes. Trying to corporatise and diversify professional surfing feels much like all the major labels attempting to do the same in years gone by with fuck all success. For me the most telling insight was on the lipped poddy when he spent some time around WSL employees in Fiji. He said the way they looked /spoke about surfing is very different to how the common or core surfer does. He stated that backwards Beth pretty much sums up who is running the ship at the WSL. Surfing and surfers are such a different paradigm to just about any other industry and to move away from understanding and targetting that core demographic has and always will spell disaster. All said though, even if pro surfing flops we will all still surf so who really gives a fuck.
Facebook sucks they are majorly responsible for Cheeto Jesus getting ‘elected ‘ and there’s no way I would sign up just to watch some boring ass water sitting.
Guys r putting out too many good clips and videos and there’s so much other stuff going on in surfing Like for instance paddling out and having a water sit myself. Sorry WSL you’re blowing it
Sloppy Soph only had one key question to ask herself; “is Facebook cool anymore?”
I think some of the commentariat may be a little naive about privacy in general. Between insta, disqus and that phone of yours, you are hiding in plain sight.
As long as I cover my own eyes, they can’t see me.
I watch pretty closely every wsl contest and I thoroughly enjoy it even with questionable judging and crap announcers. But where I draw the line is Facebook. Of course this is arbitrary but I don’t care. I will do without the contests if it’s only on Facebook.
I was thinking today the only truly compelling contest is good pipeline. They won’t even have that in 2019 so good riddance wsl.
Hot air. Facebook’s full of “core surfer” sites with “core surfers” going on about shit. It’s not so much that it’s Facebook, it’s that Facebook didn’t work.
If they can get the stream working and Teahupo’o is 8 foot and pumping I suspect a lot of surf fans may overlook their objections to Facecrook.
not surf fans but contest fans
Disagree. The Thundercloud session in 2012 was amazing surfing by mostly non-contest surfers. If I could see something like that once a month (or maybe eight or nine times a year) I’d be very happy and might be willling to pay.
didn’t you just agree with me?
Not sure. If you are saying that only contest fans tune into contests then, in theory, I disagree because I think webcast of non contest surfing is worthwhile viewing. Or am I missing your point?
Core surfer sites?
I see lots of baby boomers reliving their glorious youth…….similar but not the same.
But that probably is the WSL core audience, if we are being honest.
Still worked on Foxtel.
the “Man” invented modern surf culture through surf magazines and movies starting in the 1950’s . the whole thing has been a plot to mentally enslave you and turn you into a mindless consumer. Pro surfing is a farce. shape your own board or at least try and just go surfing and forget the rest.
Since I got kicked off of Stab, this site and a forum about trucks is the only social media that I do. I watch the Pacific contests because they are on when I get home from work, but if I need to go through Facebook then I’m out. There’s plenty of stuff on Netflix. I’m getting old anyway and the couch just gets more comfortable.
The WSL should join up with Amazon, then I could watch on a big screen instead of this iPad. They could put the shittier contests on prime and charge for the good ones, I would pay. Amazon sure a shit knows how to stream video.
If a “core surf fan” who has problems with Facebook won’t take the five minutes to set up a fake Facebook account then how core is he! And Facebook is useful for surfers, updates from surfschools on surf conditions, surfboards for sale etc. the problem people have with Facebook isn’t Facebook, it’s their cuntish friends posting shit! Set up a fake account, follow the WSL and local surfboard websites and sites for local conditions and you can endlessly troll the WSL on Facebook with unhappy emoji faces to your hearts content!
I guess I’m not that “core”, I can just watch something else. There is a pretty big difference between what I’m doing in the water and what the professional surfers are doing anyway.
Where is the hardship in spending a maximum of five minutes making a fake account, they can’t get any information out of a fake account, can they?
Heck, your right. Since everyone else has Facebook I should be on too. I don’t want to be left out.
Nah, I like to make my own choices as opposed to being led down a path. If you like Facebook then good for you, but I have done fine this past 46 years without it.
It’s up to you, but setting up a fake account would seem to be a viable option for many who are wary of Facebook.
They’ll sniff out who you you really are quite quickly anyway. I’m not a tin-foiler, but I think people might be surprised at the amount of data correlation these companies can do in the shadows. They may have a buffering sports feed from JBay, but they ain’t stupid.
And no, I’m never going to sign up to Facebook come hell or high water. For better or worse, Pro-wave-claiming or not.
How do you do it Jimmy?
A couple of months ago I got fed up with seeing smug couple photos, smug holiday photos of non friends, the political views of people I used to like, baby photos etc etc, but I liked messenger, so I deactivated my account. I can still use messenger, but one thing I did miss was the surf reports of local spots, so I set up a fake account, which I can use for the WSL, Facebook can be annoying, but it’s probably the cunts I befriended more so than anything!
yeah, OK, but how do you set up a fake account?
You’ll need an email account and then go to Facebook and set up your fake account with fake name etc, all you need is a valid email address, takes probably only two minutes!
They will tap your brainwaves, man!
https://theintercept.com/20…
Boycott all corporate brand surf companies…buy from local artist and individuals.
Yeah, but nah!
Costco has a pretty nice epoxy 8’0” funshape with a cork deck for $300. Comes with fins and leash too. This could be the next Wavestorm.
🙁
So true…they lost me long ago when cash and control was the obvious agenda!
There are a lot of Breitbart stickers on the fence at Trestles, and I saw an Infowars sticker alongside cosmic surfbro stickers on a Tacoma yesterday, so surfers just might be the Facebook type – regardless of what the semi-literate ones say.
No doubt. You ever notice how many little fish drawings there are next to the shapers signature on your new $800 sled? The quiet conservatives are rampant in the surf world too.
I’ve also sworn I’ll never buy or ride a board with a little fish on it. I won’t support that idiocy. It’s 2018, not the Bronze Age.
I’ve lurked on the Surfer forum a little and it seems chock-full of MAGA-fuckwits.
Wayne lynch is sad about this.
Tough. He can go cry to his imaginary sky faerie.
He signs a fish on his boards because it’s his nickname, not because he’s a bible bashing freak like the others.
I stopped buying CI’s for this reason, yes I know I am a bigot.
Depending on the altitude the giant dog was flying at. The vomit might freeze, much like the urine from a commercial flight. If the giant flying dog were to perform an emergency descent, it could land in time to enjoy a tangy frozen vomity ice cream before it melted. The WSL should explore this option.
It’s a Luck Dragon, not a dog, goddamnit. Otherwise, very accurate.
Sounded a bit like a never ending story ?
Well it looks like a shitty dog.
I don’t think they’ve invented a ten channeled dog yet Nick. Show some compassion.
Well Chas has just thrown my comment under the bus by changing the pic.
If I call my dog a Soul Phoenix will it become amazing and fly or will it still be a labrador that’s been rolling in something dead?
Depends on what it was rolling in, I guess.
The WSL business plan I think.